export an HDV final cut project without recompress it

[Nicola Di Pietro]

Hello!

I have a Final Cut Studio 2 HDV project (JVC HD100E HDV camcorder shootings + effects and other tracks).
I captured the shootings through camcorder's firewire connection, so the HDV files are compressed just once (in the Mini HDV videotape).

Now I need to export it as a single HDV file.

But I need just an m2t file. This is my question:

Is Final Cut able to make all the project/tracks as a single m2t file WITHOUT re-compress it?


I will not change the codec, always HDV;

The difference is that now I have several HDV shootings + several effect final cut tracks; at the end I'll have just 1 HDV video file.

So I fear that it re-compress all, but the codec is the same that I use while editing.


Thank you.

[James Martin]

I'm afraid that, unless I'm mistaken, you will have to re-compress it. Normally, you can use a Quicktime Referene in these situations, but in AVID at least you cannot do this with HDV (presumably due to it being a GOP based codec or some such).

I think this is why they like ProRes422 etc etc...

JM.

[Nicola Di Pietro]

Pro Res 422 is an awesome codec!

I think that with the camcorder that I use (JVC HD100E), bypassing the HDV compression of the minitape recording, taking the signal directly from the Uncompressed HD Component output, using an I/O portable box like the excellent AJA IoHD, that has the ProRes422 hardware accel. too, and importing in a notebook workstation in real time, on an external pcmcia-to-esata dual hard drive RAID0 enclosure, we'll obtain an excellent quality...

We miss just the notebook, the AJA box and the hard drives...

[Heath McKnight]

It isn't really recompressing it so much as conforming it. HDV/.m2t is really tough to edit, so Apple does a little finagling with the HDV footage upon capture, so when you're editing it on the timeline, there isn't a problem. When you output to tape, it does the conform to HDV/.m2t.

Before ProRes 422 debuted in FCP 6 (which is great), Apple really pushed the Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC), which has gotten better over time. Unfortunately, the file sizes quadrupled upon capture/conversion. I also worked with the Photo Jpeg setting at 75% quality in the FCP sequence settings/QT settings, developed by Graeme Nattress. The quality didn't drop, per se, it just converted it to 4:2:2 YCbCr. 100% quality gives you RGB 4:2:2, but the file sizes are larger. ProRes 422 is a better codec.

I used to go back to tape (HDV), but now I just make a digital master in HD and if I need to output to something other than DVD or the web, I'll probably just go with HDCAM. Some fests still request BetaSP! With that in mind, I usually do an export as DVCPRO 50.

heath